Delicate Offers a Truce

[Excited Penguin]

Well the dark ages were brought on by the fall of the Roman Empire which was brought down in part by the change structure from a military and conquest based power system to one more church centric. The theory goes like this, until the time of Christianity the way to power in the roman empire was to become a powerful general. This changed as Christianity became the route to power and the brightest and best eneterd the church rather than the military. It wasn't the whole story but who knows what a better class of general could have achieved against the invading barbarian hordes

If anything, that theory would suggest that it was in part due to the protection of the church that the opportunity for scientific enlightenment was made possible, as rather than squandering their talents in political conflicts, the brightest were left to themselves in monasteries to discover intellectual progress, where it was almost exclusively made in Europe, along with the preservation of ancient works, much of which would have been permanently lost without the Muslims. Hence, it's also interesting to note that it was religion, in the case of Islam, that initiated a rekindling of Greek science and philosophy which in turn led to solidify the rise of Arab civilization during the period in the West known as the dark ages. So, apparently, if you're going to blame religion in the one instance, you'd better be prepared to credit it in the other.

Yes, I know that, even though this wasn't addressed at me. But isn't it the case that the Dark Ages were, in effect, extremely religious? It seems to me like to take religion out of the equation like that is a little going too far. I rather regret more the fall of the Greek civilization, than the Roman one, by the way. And you can't expect me to credit religion simply for being the only game in town in Europe for such a long time. The Dark Ages were hell on earth for most people for a reason, and that reason is very intimately connected with religion - or at least that's my impression, based on what I learned and read. Am I wrong?